Say yes
by planet p
Summary: Jessica comes back from the dead. Sam/Crossroads Demon
1. Chapter 1

**Say yes** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _Supernatural_ or any of its characters.

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_Then_

Ruby smiled. "That's my boy!" she beamed.

* * *

_Now_

She came to him in a nightmare. He stepped up close to her, so that she stood back and came up against a wall. She had an agreeable face, a face that he knew so well, for he had loved her so well. He felt her pressed to him. He wanted her. He kissed her quickly.

"Shem!" she breathed, and he knew that she would try to stop him, but he would win out as he always did.

He dropped his palm from the cold hard wall and brushed his fingertips against the warm skin on the backs of her legs. "Would you stop me, Zippora?" he spoke into her hair. He smoothed his hands up the backs of her legs and under the tight dress she wore so that his hands were rested on her naked bottom. In one swift movement he hoisted her up. Her legs clutched tightly to him. Her chin feel forward onto his back over his shoulder and she sighed appreciatively.

No, she would not stop him.

* * *

The world burned around them, and shadows dark, with hearts as dark and beating so, stalked the shadows already fallen, and paused undecided over meager pickings.

The world burned and they burned with it.

* * *

Dean glanced across to his little brother through the gloom. It was a nightmare. He knew them too well himself. He walked to Sam's bedside. "Sh," he said whisper-quiet. "It's okay now. You can stop fighting now."

* * *

Ruby screamed inside her resting mind. The world was falling apart. She awoke to bright daylight.

She touched her lips. She missed him the way she could not remember missing him before.

They had grown up so well, her boys, and as beautiful as their father that it hurt her to look upon them.

She had loved John as much as any human could have. But she was not, not exactly human. She had always been so, had always been not exactly human.

Her thoughts turned to her boys. No, she had never been possessed, she had always been a demon; and so too were her boys: half human, half demon.

* * *

Sam stared an unending gaze into the inky blackness of his coffee, the warmth and brightness of sun an annoyance coming in through the large glass front of the roadhouse.

He was sore and the seat was so cold and the day becoming steadily hotter that he felt sickness, sickness where she had touched him with her fingers, her hands, her skin, her mouth.

He pushed those thoughts away. He had shot her in the head. The Crossroads Demon was dead.

* * *

"Give us a smile, gumnut!" Dean chimed, taking a seat opposite Sam.

Sam turned to regard the window, glum, but otherwise expressionless.

"Aw!" Dean cooed and was ignored by his younger brother.

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_Any thoughts? TBC?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Say yes** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _Supernatural_ or any of its characters.

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You want a nice guy, you get a shaman. You want a self-centered jerk, you get a half-demon. - Kelley Armstrong, _Industrial Magic_.

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_Then_

There was a war coming. She heard it everywhere, she heard it always. She heard it so much she started to believe it.

See, she had been human once. She had loved once. And for the life of the only person she had ever loved, she had gone to Hell.

And now Dean was destined to go too. And then Sam would be alone.

She couldn't stop Hell from taking Dean, but she could make sure that Sam was not alone.

It might have been something about the moment she knew she was going to die. Mother and father, dead. Big brother, dead.

Not only human. All those long centuries ago, she had been something else also, just as Ruby had been witch, she had been Healer.

In that moment, she used everything demon and powerful inside her, not to halt her own death – a pointless thought – but to disavow another's. And then she died.

* * *

_Now_

She lay on something lush and wet, and strangely solid. The lushness and wetness turned to sliminess as she sat. It had began to rain, and judging by the soggy ground she lay upon, it must have rained some time fairly recently passed.

She struggled to stand. She slipped and would have pitched forward had she not taken hold of the large object in front of her, grazing her palms painfully.

Water streamed through her fingers even as she clutched at the stony object, and she lowered her chin, noting it to be a gravestone. And the gravestone had her name on it.

She screamed, reeling backward, and slipped on the wet lawn. She fell hard on her backside, but the name on the gravestone stayed stubbornly the same.

IN LOVING MEMORY

JESSICA LEE MOORE

* * *

Her life was a small collection of fragments in an even bigger collection of unknowns. Sometimes she made a joke of it, though it was really funny. Pea soup, went the unfunny joke.

For a time, she did nothing. For a time, her life was purposeless. And then the time passed.

She read up. She visited public libraries. She searched archives and old newspapers, and the internet where she could.

She was not the same person she had been before her death, but she was not a different person either. She was just… changed.

* * *

_TBC?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Say yes** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _Supernatural_ or any of its characters.

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_AU; s__et sometime in Season 3, I imagine, as that is when Ruby turns up._

_Also, if anyone remembers how vampires are killed on this show, I'd appreciate the telling. For the moment, I'm going with wooden stakes and sunlight._

* * *

Sam and Dean were hunting vampires, but Dean swore it felt as though those vampires were hunting them… jerking them around, just for kicks. Hell, they were probably watching it all – laughing. But vampires killing kids, and turning kids, wasn't a laughing matter, at least, in Dean's books!

And kids hunting kids was just plain not right!

Dean bolted around the corner, which, from the layout he'd earlier consulted, lead to the science labs, following one of the kiddy vamps, and abruptly lost his footing, skidding, with a nasty screeching sound, on a large pool of dark blood, and hit the corridor floor hard, landing heavily beside the former cleaner's dead body.

He gazed into the man's dead eyes for a moment, dull, and cussed. He yanked himself to his feet, swearing to himself that Sammy wouldn't end up that way – as long as he got a move on and did his part – because Sam was his kid brother, and, no matter what, if something ever happened to Sam, he'd feel personally responsible, whether or not that was the case.

He just didn't like to see Sammy hurt. It hurt him, too, and he knew that was the way it was supposed to be. Sometimes, he felt stupid, but most times, he felt a bit like Sammy was his kid instead of his brother, as ridiculous as he realised that sounded.

He pulled himself together and raced off in the direction he'd last seen the vampire disappear. Kid or no kid, that vamp was marked for dust and ash!

* * *

Dean swung around at the sound of a muted shifting from behind him, a small stirring of air, deftly raising the wooden stake in his hand as he turned.

Ruby stepped backward sharply, pitching over the dead body of the cleaner.

Dean grinned, but did not lower the stake.

"He looks like he's seen better days," Ruby commented dryly as she straightened, standing, her eyes first going to the stake, and then to Dean's face. "Vampires, seriously? They're never as handsome as in the films, let me tell you, which is a pity-!" She cut the talking short at the sight of the expression on Dean's face.

Of course, he'd want to know why she'd turned up.

She grinned. "Dean!"

Dean grimaced, dropping the grin, teeth gritted. "Ruby!"

"Where's Sam?" she quested, colouring her voice with a slight questioning tone.

Dean didn't bother to answer, but snapped around and sprinted away, as though he'd forgotten all about her, though she'd been standing right in front of him moments earlier.

Ruby sighed and took chase. If Sam was in trouble, then she was in trouble.

* * *

The chase took them out of the main school building and toward the school sports ground and oval, where they caught up with Sam, breathing heavily and looking annoyed.

He'd lost sight of the three junior vamps; they could be anywhere now, for all he knew, stalking new prey, or they could be right nearby, watching, waiting, stalking them.

He glanced at Ruby, and then turned a curious expression on his brother.

Dean pretended not to notice.

"Well, hi there, Sam!" Ruby greeted brightly.

Sam pulled a face, unconvinced by her cheerful tone, and glanced away, surveying the area around them, most of which was dark and slippery, due to the grass and several recent bouts of rain.

Dean huffed, aggravated, and headed off in the direction of several small out buildings, probably used to house equipment of some sort, probably sports. Sam followed him, and Ruby, rolling her eyes, took off after the pair just as it started to drizzle, which was just great.

* * *

They'd been through and through the same few buildings for what had to have been five minutes, stocking up on their weekly quota of cold, wet and pissed, when the sound of bending metal meet Ruby's ears and she was knocked to the ground by one of the young vamps who'd obviously been watching them from the roof of one of the buildings and had decided she looked about the tastiest among them.

And the damn thing was strong; stronger than Ruby had expected. It had obviously made for her neck when it had leapt, but in the ensuing fall it had only ended up tearing a great ugly, painful gash in the soft skin, instead of hitting its intended artery. It might have been strong, but it certainly wasn't skilful. Apparently, that came with time, and time, when Ruby had finished with the little bugger, was something this apprentice vamp would not have the luxury of for very much longer!

Stupid thing had gone and gashed up her meat suit!

Now she was pissed.

She threw the thing off her and around and pinned it to the ground with a strong hold, though it was fighting, and it was fighting hard. "Dean, now!" she bellowed, remembering it was Dean who'd had the stake, and not Sam, though she'd wondered who the Hell had had the crossbow. If it was her, she'd have had a crossbow, some wooden arrows! Wouldn't kill the thing, but it'd sure slow the thing down!

She heard what she thought might have been a short laugh, and then she was clutching at ash and dust.

She pushed herself to her feet with an inaudible grunt, and turned swiftly to face Dean, glowering.

The vampire that landed behind Dean did so with barely a sound. Ruby wondered briefly if the girl/thing had been the gym type, or on the aerobics team, before she slammed Dean up against the wall and out of the line of fangs with one hand and palmed the stake and staked the thing with the other, then swiftly stalked away to check on Sam, who streaked past her and bolted the metal barrier around the oval and raced across the wet grass after the last fleeing vampire.

_Coward_, Ruby thought. It'd rather run than face its friends killers! And where had it been when its friends were being killed! Hiding, Ruby guessed.

She took after Sam and the baby vamp, only slowing to duck under the metal barrier. Her host wasn't nearly Sam's height, and, as a consequence, its legs weren't nearly as long as Sam's, and didn't take as kindly to hurdling objects which, at speed, and upon impact, might break bones.

Dean was behind her, and they tore across the oval, then, another metal barrier, a fence, and they were running along streets, and across roads, only praying to be able to keep up with the thing.

* * *

It brought them to a parking lot, black gravel shining in the renewed rainstorm, cars gleaming, even the old rusty ones, under the slick of pelting rain.

A diner. Bright, glaring.

Warm.

They saw the vamp slow, to a normal human walking pace, and pull the door. Inside, it was safe, as long as it was were the people were, and it managed to control its powerful urge to suck those people's blood. They'd think the kid was strung out on drugs, at worst, but nobody actually believed in vampires. Vampires existed on television, not in real life.

Ruby marched up to the diner, only pausing to flick her gaze in the direction of the hours of operation, and flinging the door open and continuing inside in that same march. She marched right up to the table the vamp had hastily taken and yanked him out of his seat by the back of his clothes.

She was halfway across the diner already before Sam and Dean entered, and she didn't even flinch.

They garnered some looks, but nobody stood or offered the struggling boy their assistance.

Sam quickly joined Ruby, Dean at his heels, but Ruby ignored the pair and dragged the boy/monster with her, and shoved him before her into the toilets, slamming him up against the wall beside the automatic hand drier with a heavy thud and the cracking of tile.

The vampire bared his fangs.

"You fed yet, boy?" Ruby growled, but the vampire wasn't giving anything up but an attitude. "I'll pray for your soul that it may reach Heaven, and that our Lord Jesus might find forgiveness in his heart for a lost and weary child!" she rattled off, and staked the thing right there in the toilet under the harsh glare of the artificial light.

Dean watched as bits of orange ash flared and fell to the floor and died.

Ruby brushed the ash and dust off her and pivoted on her heel and marched out the same way she'd come, then she marched up to the counter and ordered them all coffees and two slices of apple pie and a cheese burger.

Sam hurried out of the toilet and Dean followed him out, then just stood staring at Ruby, along with Sam.

Sam made a face.

Dean glanced at him, but when Ruby walked back over, Sam followed and sat down across the table from her.

Dean stood around unhappily for a few moments before sitting down, too. What else was he supposed to do, wait outside whilst the demon fed his brother lies?

* * *

Later, a waitress arrived with their coffees and set them down at the table.

Dean muttered a hasty, "Thanks," and reached for his coffee and took a quick sip.

"Sam?" a woman's voice uttered in astonishment, and Dean's head whipped up in the direction of the voice.

The blonde waitress was staring dead at Sam, and, strangely, Sam was staring at her, too.

"Jess?"

As soon as Sam said it, Dean realised what had been bugging him about that blonde hair, but, to his credit, he thought, managed not to choke on his coffee.

Then it was Ruby's turn to talk, "You seem to me, young thing, to have a powerful urge to die tonight. Is that right, or am I reading into things here that shouldn't be read into?"

Dean stared at the gun Ruby had pointed directly at Jess's heart.

Jess stared at the gun, too.

Sam seemed to want to say something, he just couldn't seem to make his mouth work.

"What do you want?" Jess blurted stupidly, panicked, as though she thought maybe she was in the middle of a hold up, her eyes wide on the gun pointed at her chest.

"RUBY!" Sam finally managed, as though there was a great effort involved.

"She's not your girlfriend, Sam! Your girlfriend's dead!" Ruby reminded him.

Sam let out a huff of air. "I know," he replied, defeated, "but can we just hold up on the killing for five minutes! I haven't even got to have any of my coffee."

Ruby scowled, and put the gun away as swiftly as she'd drawn it. "Si' down!" she instructed Jess, in a growl, falsely sweet.

Jess sat.

Dean glanced at her sideways. She'd sat down beside him, and now that he had the opportunity, he wanted to see for himself whether there was any possibility that – he knew she wasn't Jess – but maybe whatever she/it was, it was wearing Jess's body.

Jess was staring straight ahead, as though in shock, and, though she was staring at her, Dean had a fair idea that she wasn't seeing Ruby at all.

"Who are you?" Sam demanded, looking angry, and Dean started to feel a lot like he was the meat in the sandwich.

"I'm Jessica Lee Moore," Jess recited. "I'm your girlfriend… Sammy."

Sam laughed, the sound humorous and harsh at the same time.

Dean wanted to lean away, but then he'd be leaning on Jess, and he didn't feel much like doing that.

"No way, bitch!" Sam growled. "Jess is dead, don't you dare make fun of her – one more time, you hear me! – or it'll be me on the other end of that gun, not Ruby!"

"Dude," Dean interrupted.

Sam turned to him swiftly, a deadly hardness in his eyes.

"At least hear her out before you go handing out funeral notices, is all I'm saying, man," Dean rattled off, pretending not to notice the look in his brother's eyes, and pretending that it didn't freak him out in the least.

"Talk, bitch!" Sam ground, clenching his jaw, and Dean wished he would have left out a couple of the cuss words.

"I-I am Jessica Lee Moore," Jess said, scared. "I am your girlfriend, a-at least, I mean, I was your girlfriend, and you were my boyfriend, b-before I-I died."

Sam laughed. Dean wanted to slap him, but he settled for smacking him on the leg. Sam glared at him.

"You're what, a zombie?" Ruby said, with barely contained disbelief.

Jess didn't take her eyes off Sam as she answered Ruby's question. "N- I-I don't know. I- No. I hope not. I hope I'm alive. I eat, I mean. And I… br-breathe."

"That's sugar, hon'," Ruby cooed menacingly. "Just darn right syrupy, 'f y' ask me. But that ain't none o' my concern, now! My concern is wholly booked for several hours, at least – with smokin' your rottin' corpse!"

Dean stared at Ruby, trying not to gape. What the Hell was Ruby so pissed about, it wasn't as though Jess had been her girlfriend, or almost sister-in-law!

"Sam, please!" Jess pleaded, drawing Dean's attention back to her face. "I just woke up! I don't know how! I was dead! And then I woke up! And- and I was lying in front of my-my own grave, Sam! And it was raining. I-I was cold, and I was naked!" Tears welled in her eyes. "You're not supposed to be naked when you're dead, Sam! I mean, they dress you up, and all, don't they?"

"You wanna know what I think-" Ruby interrupted.

"JUST SHUT UP!" Jess howled. "I'M TALKING TO SAM, IF YOU CAN'T SEE!"

Dean grinned, and ignored Ruby's death glare.

"D-do whatever you have to me, I don't care, t-to prove to yourself that I'm Jessica," Jess said, trying not to cry, "but at least give me a chance! I-I'm as desperate for the truth as you are, Sammy."

Dean mentally reprimanded himself for thinking anything other than sterile, wholesome thoughts when Jess had mentioned the part about 'd-do whatever you have to me,' and glanced at Sam, hoping that he'd at least give the girl a chance. They couldn't very well smoke her in the middle of a frickin' diner, in any case!

"Fine," Sam announced in a stiff grit, barely allowing his mouth to open as he spoke. And that was it.

Jess bobbed her head, wiping away hated, shameful tears. She didn't think it would ever matter, no matter how many times she died, she'd still always be afraid of it, she'd still always be afraid that she'd never have the chance to be with Sam again, to be near him, just to be near him.

In the back of her mind, she remembered the apple pie, and the cheese burger. That would be for Dean, she guessed, liking him more than she had before, despite his choice of snack food. So, maybe he wasn't the piece-of-fruit-and-a-handful-of-nuts-and-assorted-bird-food-plus-berries type, but neither was she. It made her like him more, in a sisterly kind of way.

She snuck a quick look at Sam, but he wasn't looking at her. For a moment, she wondered if he hated her. She quickly banished the thought. _Not you_, she told herself. He didn't hate her, he hated what he thought she was, and that wasn't Jessica. She was glad of Dean's warmth, just there, next to her, like a comforting arm around her shoulders, or a hand to hold, and backed out of the booth, dropping her gaze to her tennis shoes.

Her boss always wanted her to wear nicer shoes, shoes that the men would like her in, and the women would be jealous of. _Look at her._ Jealous that she could still wear high heels even though she'd been on the same pair of heels all day. And she always refused; she wasn't going to come home from work with welts and bruises and a sore back, just for the sake of a few tips. She always told herself that it was just about the tips, when in actuality she knew that wasn't what it was at all, but that was what she told herself so she didn't get so upset, so she didn't slap one of them one day when they touched her backside or made some smart comment that was really demeaning and stupid and unnecessary.

She kept her eyes on the floor and hurried away; Sam was probably hungry. As she walked, trying not to shuffle, she wondered who the woman was, the woman with blonde hair, like her hair; wondered if she was with Sam or Dean, and prayed it wasn't Sam, not that she really wanted it to be Dean either, she wasn't a nice person, and Jess didn't think it would be right to inflict that on anyone.

She collected up the plates and turned around to return to the table where Sam and Dean sat with the woman named Ruby, glad to be headed back in Sam's direction, as much as he seemed to really hate her right now, it only told her how much more she loved him, which was silly, but made her want to laugh and cry at the same time. But, mostly, she just wanted Sam. She just wanted him to hold her and tell her it was okay.

She needed it not to be just a crazy dream, because she clearly remembered dying, and she clearly remembered waking up in that cemetery. She just needed to know what was what, and that there was a place for Sam in all of it. She even thought she could handle the really dead/crazy dream part as long as she knew that she'd soon be sent back. At least, then, she had a chance; at least, then, Sam and she would someday have a chance again.

It wouldn't even matter if they were just friends.

She stopped at the table and handed out the plates and no objections were offered, which must have meant that she'd handed them out right. Nobody was talking, but Dean muttered, "Thanks," and she headed away to continue the night's shift.

Maybe, at the end, Sam would still be there. Maybe, he'd wait for her. Maybe, he'd give her another chance.

* * *

_???_


End file.
